Coming soon … capacity boost for Walkden peak trains

From December (this year) Northern receives an injection of new trains (actually they’re very old trains – but new to Northern) and TfGM has decided that the Walkden line should be one of the key routes around Manchester to benefit from the additional capacity.

According to the committee’s plans, the following peak hour services will have extra seats and standing capacity from December:

Morning

0658 to Manchester: changing from a 2-car class 142 “Pacer” to a (slightly larger) 2-car class 150 “sprinter” – providing 26 extra seats and 63 more spaces in total

0738 to Stalybridge via Manchester: changing from a Sprinter to a Pacer plus a Sprinter – 111 extra seats and 137 more spaces in total

0835 to Manchester: changing from a Pacer to a Sprinter – 26 extra seats and 63 more spaces in total

Evening

1610 from Victoria: changing from a Pacer to a Sprinter – 26 extra seats and 63 more spaces in total

1710 from Victoria: changing from a Pacer to two Pacers – 111 extra seats and 137 more spaces in total

1845 from Victoria: changing from a Pacer to a Sprinter – 26 extra seats and 63 more spaces in total

Class 142 "Pacer" at Hag Fold

In addition, for people travelling on to destinations like the Calder Valley, Liverpool and Bolton, other routes in the area will also benefit from extra carriages on some of their busiest services.

This is great news for long-suffering commuters on some of our most over-crowded services, and TfGM deserve much credit for the dogged defence they have mounted against the DfT’s attempts to reduce the influx of extra carriages.

The TfGM report also notes that even more carriages should become available for commuter routes around Manchester over the next few years as electrification of the lines to Bolton, Liverpool (via Eccles), and Leeds frees up diesel trains.

Class 150 "Sprinter" at Walkden

We understand the scheduling of more 4-carriage trains to call at Walkden will require increasing the operational length of the platform at Walkden, but do not know when this work will be performed.